by M. J. Scott
“Don’t you?” Marco looked politely disbelieving. “Then why does the idea of Jason coming into his powers upset you so?”
“It upsets me,” I said, trying to stay calm, “because he tried to read my fucking mind. That’s a violation.”
“He cannot always help himself at the moment.”
“You mean he wasn’t trying to find out what Smith had said to me? Oops, sorry, just tripped and let my telepathy get away from me?”
Marco smiled suddenly, his deep green eyes lighting with humor. It was a disconcerting reminder that he was, in his way, attractive as Niko. More attractive really, because he didn’t have Niko’s smug self-satisfaction. But I wasn’t going to let GQ charm sidetrack me.
“Why can’t you leave him alone?” I shoved the laptop into its case and started piling everything else in the pockets. Cables. Mouse. Portable drive. Sanity. In some ways this was all Marco’s fault. If he’d just left Jase alone I’d still have a best friend I could trust. I yanked the zipper on the case closed with enough force to tear the metal tab free. I tossed it to the floor.
“That would not be wise.”
“Why not?”
The humor faded. “Cara, there are some things I do not need to discuss with you. In fact, I would remind you that I am here to help you as a kindness. I do not owe you anything.”
“I didn’t ask you to come,” I snapped then sucked in a breath as the degree of aggression in my tone suddenly sank in. I was alone with an Old One. An Old One who’d just pointed out that I still owed him a debt. And I was yelling at him.
Unease cut through my anger like ice water. Way to go, Keenan.
I took another breath and picked up the laptop case. “I’m sorry, Lord Marco. That was rude.”
“You are upset. But believe me, Jason was not trying to hurt you. Also, he was right about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You need to talk to your wolf about what happened here. Tell him his instincts were correct.”
I hate it when people are right about something when I’m pissed off. So I didn’t answer, just headed down to the club, wondering how much Marco had overhead of Smith’s phone call. The crowd had picked up so that the smell of fresh sweat and too many five dollar aftershaves mingled with the stale beer-and-Marlboro smell.
I started to head for the door then spotted Jase at the bar.
Talking to Niko.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Something in the angle of their heads or the just-a-fraction-too-close way they were standing made my stomach churn all over again. Surely Jase wasn’t going to make things even worse by being stupid enough to fall for someone as blatantly bad news as Niko?
I pushed through the crowd and shoved in between them. “I thought Marco asked you to get a cab?”
Jase stared down at me. “I rang for one. It’ll be a couple of minutes.”
“Great, we can wait outside.” I grabbed his arm and yanked. “Say goodnight, Niko.”
Niko curled one corner of his mouth at me. “Goodnight, Ms. Keenan. Au revoir, Jason.”
Yeah, well, there’d be no meeting again between these two if I had anything to do with it. I kept my fingers firmly around the expensive wool of Jase’s jacket and headed for the exit.
* * *
It would’ve taken a chainsaw to cut through the furious silence in the cab. Probably self-preservation on Jase’s part. On my part it was rage choking my throat.
I still couldn’t believe Jase had tried to read my mind. Each time I pictured the weird expression on his face and the odd sensation in my head, fury boiled through me. I dug my fingers into the upholstery, the fabric shredding beneath my nails like Kleenex. I was going to have to tip the cabdriver like crazy.
I managed to make it all the way into the office before I started yelling. “Don’t you ever try that again.”
“Ash—”
“Do not ‘Ash’ me.” I dumped my purse with a thump on the reception desk and clenched my hands so I wouldn’t pick it up again and hurl it at Jase’s head.
“I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“No, you just tried to read my mind.”
He pulled off his jacket and tossed it toward the coat stand. “If it makes you feel any better, it didn’t work.”
I watched the jacket miss by a few inches. Jase never missed. “No, it doesn’t make me feel any better. I have to be able to trust you, Jason, or this isn’t going to work anymore.”
“You can trust me.” The hurt in his eyes almost made me believe him.
Almost.
“Can I?” Three hours ago I would’ve sworn on a sky-high stack of bibles that Jase would never hurt me. Now I wasn’t so sure. Not when I had no idea what he was actually capable of psychically or while he seemed to be not entirely disinterested in Niko.
Jase tugged at the points of his collar. “I won’t try it again.”
“Unless Marco tells you to.”
“No! Jesus, Ashley, who do you think I am?”
I didn’t know, that was the problem. And if I couldn’t have Jase as the one constant thing in my world, then everything seemed just a little too hard. My eyes started to burn and I blinked. I wasn’t going to cry over this. I was mad. I had a right to be. Jase knew how I felt about this subject. And he’d done what he’d done anyway. “Why should I trust you? You can pick things out of my mind.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Not yet.” I was wearing a groove in the carpet in front of the desk, pacing up and down restlessly.
“I won’t.” He held up his hands in a what-do-I-have-to-do gesture.
I rubbed my forehead. We could go round and round on this for hours but I didn’t have time. I still had to go home and go round and round with Dan about why I hadn’t called him immediately to tell him about Smith. So I changed the subject. “Okay, why don’t we talk about what the hell you were doing downstairs with Niko? I told you to stay away from him.”
Jase scowled, baring his fangs. “I was just talking.”
“That wasn’t talking. That was flirting.”
All expression drained from his face. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
“When you start hanging out with the lord of the dark side’s henchman and then suddenly you start losing your mind and trying to read mine, it becomes my business.”
His lips pressed together. “I think I’m going home now.”
“Fine. You do that. I’m late for Dan anyway.”
“Make sure you tell him what happened.” Jase stalked over and picked up his jacket from the floor, scowling at the wrinkled mess. He shook it straight with a vicious snap and tugged it on.
“Yeah because my night’s been just a barrel of laughs so far.”
He ignored me and reached for the door handle. Then stopped and turned back. “If it helps, I’m sorry.”
“About Niko?”
Head shake. “About the mind thing. I just wanted to be able to tell Dan if you didn’t.”
“And that’s supposed to improve my mood about you?”
“It’s meant to be an apology.”
I shrugged as my heart cracked a little. I wanted to forgive him but the anger burned too hot. Not yet. Not while the memories of what Tate had done to me was so fresh. Maybe not for a long time. “Okay. But we’re not done with this.” I looked at my watch. “Now, I have to go yell with someone else for awhile.” I headed for my briefcase. I had to store the information we’d downloaded before I could go to Dan’s.
“Well, actually, no you don’t.”
I swiveled back to Jase. “Excuse me?”
He smiled, more than a little grim satisfaction in the expression. “Dan just stepped out of the elevator. Good night, Ashley.”
Chapter Six
I fought the urge to bolt into my office and lock the door as Jase walked out, turning sideways to let Dan come in. Running would be pointless. Dan could burst through a door in a nanosecond if he wanted. The look on
his face made me think it wouldn’t even take that long.
So much for keeping anything a secret. “Does this mean my calls are still monitored?” I said, moving behind the reception desk. I didn’t think faux marble would be much protection against Dan either but it still made me feel a little better.
Dan halted on the other side of the desk. He looked rumpled, stubble shadowing his jaw. The darkness echoed the shadows under his eyes. And the fury on his face. “Marco called me. Right after the night team did.” His voice was way too controlled.
“So that’s a yes.”
“Of course your calls are monitored,” he snarled. “The case isn’t closed.”
My hands curled into fists. “Thanks for telling me.”
“You really want to complain about me not telling you stuff? After what you just pulled?” His voice rumbled dangerously.
I inched backward as his scent overwhelmed me with smoky fury. “I was going to tell you.”
“I gave you a panic button.” He put one hand flat on the marble as if preparing to vault the desk if he had to. “You want to tell me why the fuck you didn’t use it?”
I backed up a little farther but there wasn’t far to go. My legs bumped into the cabinet that held our printer. “Because I wasn’t in danger. And I didn’t want the FBI raiding one of Esteban’s clubs for no good reason.”
“Not in danger?” The rumble in Dan’s voice grew rougher. “You had one of the people who kidnapped and tortured you on the other end of the line and you think you weren’t in danger?”
He was right but I wasn’t going to tell him that. This was my life and I was going to live it my way. Too many people were trying to pull my strings at once. I was about to stage a marionette rebellion. “I was with Marco. In one of Esteban’s clubs. They have pretty good security.”
“What makes you think Esteban’s on your side?”
“Well, he’s trusting me to find out who’s stealing millions of dollars from him, so he kind of has a vested interest in keeping me alive.”
“There are other forensic accountants, you know.”
“He wants the best.” I picked up a pencil from Jase’s neat little desk caddy. The tip was blunt. For a moment it was tempting to just stab myself with it. It would be the perfect end to the day.
Dan’s hand circled his bad wrist, thumb rubbing the scar Tate’s silver chains had left. “Come out from behind there.”
I stayed where I was. If I went to him and let him hold me, I might just give in to the fear hearing Smith’s voice had summoned and burst into tears. I was trying to prove I could handle all of this. I had to be strong. Tears weren’t going to help. “I like it here.”
Dan’s arms tensed and I wondered whether he was going to leap over the desk after all. “Ash, right now I don’t know whether I want to kiss you or kick your ass. If I have to come round and get you, I might just lean toward the latter.”
I wanted to go to him. I made myself stay. Told myself Smith wasn’t going to win. But despite my best intentions, thinking of Smith made me shiver.
“What?” Dan’s eyes sharpened.
“Nothing.”
“You’re shivering.”
“No, I’m not.”
Dan bounded over the desk and pulled me to him. “Come here, you idiot.”
I let his warmth soak through me for a moment. He smelled like damp wool and tired man and the wild tang of wolf edged with anger. His arms tightened around me as I pressed my face against his shoulder, inhaling the scent of safety, and trying to believe I really was safe.
We breathed together for a few minutes, until the tension drained a little out of Dan’s muscles as my fear ebbed away. Not one hundred percent gone but manageable again. Ever since Tate had reemerged, I’d been living with a certain level of fear. I’d gotten used to it.
“I really am okay,” I said.
Dan’s arms pulled me closer for a second. He dropped a kiss on the top of my head and then released me. “What did Smith say?”
“Not much. He warned me to back off.” I eased sideways and picked up the laptop bag again so I could stash it.
He followed me as I walked into my office and started the complicated process of opening my safe.
“Or?”
I put on a fake dramatic voice as I entered the last passcode and the safe swung open. “Or I wouldn’t like the consequences. He’s all talk.” Or so I hoped. The laptop just squeezed in with the other files I had in there. It would be safe enough until we could download the information we’d taken from Infradark but really if I was going to keep getting these ultrasensitive jobs, I needed a bigger safe.
“Ash, these people aren’t the type to mess around. They think that vampires who turn everyone they bite are a good idea, remember?”
That made me shiver again. I covered it up by slamming the safe shut. I wasn’t sure my body could handle another meltdown tonight. Adrenaline overload already had my muscles feeling like I’d been run over by something the size of Marco’s limo. “Well, there hasn’t been a rash of new vampires lately. Particularly not ones complaining about the fact they just got bitten and whoosh, vampire.”
That actually raised a smile. “Whoosh, vampire?”
“You know.” I waved a hand vaguely. I really had no idea what happened when a vampire turned other than it happened at sunrise the day after they were infected. “Instant vampire with none of the normal woo-woo stuff. That means their anti-vaccine doesn’t work. It didn’t work on me.”
That wasn’t strictly true. Because Dan had bitten me at the same time I’d received Tate’s blood, none of the doctors had any idea whether I’d changed because of the anti-vaccine or my own vaccines failing as part of normal odds or something else altogether. The anti-vaccine could work perfectly for all we knew.
“I’m still increasing your protection,” Dan said.
My jaw clenched. “Define increasing?” In the first few weeks after I’d killed Tate, Dan and I had had agents watching our house and following us everywhere. But when it seemed that there wasn’t going to be any immediate retaliation by whoever the hell Tate was working with—or for—other than Dr. Smith, I’d been able to convince Dan to ease everything back.
I knew that the Taskforce kept an eye on my house and maybe even on me but I no longer saw them or had de facto bodyguards accompanying me to the office and the grocery store. I preferred life without an audience and besides the privacy issue, being surrounded by Taskforce agents on protection detail just made it harder for me to move on from what had happened. It’s hard to forget with a constant reminder following you around.
“You have people watching over you now. It doesn’t interfere with your life.”
“Yes, but you’re not talking about just watching, are you?” I said.
Dan looked wary. “No,” he admitted. “Now that Smith has resurfaced, I want you to have a detail again.”
A fresh batch of fear landed in my stomach with a thud. And it brought a side order of frustration with it. The combination made my stomach hurt. Was my life ever going to get back to normal? I didn’t want it to be the same as it had been before Tate. After all, it couldn’t be the same. I was a werewolf now. But I wanted to live without looking over my shoulder every second. Without weird-ass supernaturals playing games with me and Old Ones using me as pawns. Was that really so much to ask?
But apparently the universe wasn’t quite done with screwing around with me just yet. And it was hard to argue with Dan. Tate’s cronies had kidnapped me once. They’d taken my aunt and Dan too. I had no desire to let them get their hands on me again. “I can’t take a protection detail into Esteban’s clubs,” I pointed out. Dan’s expression turned grim and I held up a hand. “No, you don’t get to tell me to give up Esteban’s case. If I have to live with a protection detail, you have to live with me getting rid of my debt to Marco. The detail will have to wait outside. I’ll take the panic button.”
Dan’s lips compressed but then he nodded. “Al
l right. Though I’m going to speak to Marco and see if there are any of his people who can go with you to the clubs as well. You need more than just Jase if Smith tries something.”
I couldn’t argue with that. And other than Jase and the few vampires I’d met at the Taskforce, I wasn’t friendly enough with any other vampire to ask for help. And it wasn’t exactly the sort of favor I’d want to ask one of my clients. I didn’t want any of them knowing what I was getting mixed up in again. It had taken some pretty swift talking to soothe tempers after I’d had to go AWOL for awhile after being changed by Dan and then again after Tate.
“Deal,” I said. “I don’t like it but okay.”
Dan looked relieved as he sat on the edge of my desk. “My job is to keep you safe. You don’t have to like it. I don’t like it either. But I will keep you safe.”
I really, really, hoped he was right about that.
* * *
I woke up the next morning, my stomach still churning and my nerves pulsing with adrenaline. The strange mix of fear and anger powered my racing heart. Giving into the fear wasn’t going to get me anywhere so I chose to go with mad. Mad enough to need to burn off some of it if I was going to be able to function. If I went to the office in this mood I was going to end up fighting with Jase again. I hadn’t forgiven him for the crap he’d tried to pull but I didn’t want any more tension right now. I could go out back to the home gym I’d set up but lifting weights and pounding a heavy bag wasn’t what I was in the mood for. So I decided to go to Hagan’s.
Until I stepped out my front door and found Andy Ramirez and Esme on my porch, dressed in his-and-hers versions of blend-into-the-background gray suits. I knew a protection detail when I saw one. Damn. I’d forgotten I’d agreed to this. Dan had wasted no time getting things organized.
“How long have you two been here?” I asked.
Andy held up a hand. “We were trying to work out who got to tell you. Dan said you were okay with a detail but Esme was skeptical. I voted for rock paper scissors but Essie here is scared I’ll beat her.”
Esme’s lip curled. “In your dreams. And I told you not to call me that. We just got here,” she added to me. “We’re the day shift.”